Unrest in SA will end if Zuma is freed from prison, says foundation

Former president Jacob Zuma’s foundation has intimated that the ongoing looting and unrest in the country will be quelled if he is freed from prison.

In a tweet on Tuesday, the Jacob G Zuma Foundation advocated for his “immediate release” from Estcourt Correctional Centre.

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“It was just pure malice to incarcerate president Zuma whilst litigation on his detention without trial case [for a civil contempt] was ongoing,” the foundation said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mzwanele Manyi – the foundation’s spokesperson – said President Cyril Ramaphosa had “dismally failed” to the country.

“Our country can be far better off with president Ramaphosa released from his responsibility as president of South Africa,” Manyi said.

The statement comes as Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal continue to experience violent looting and protests, which were initially attributed to Zuma’s imprisonment for contempt of court, but have now devolved.

In Gauteng on Tuesday, Premier David Makhura revealed that many as 10 people had died in a stampede at a shopping mall in Meadowlands, Soweto, on Monday.

This took the province’s death toll to 19, which includes Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department officer Meshack Mahlangu, who was shot while on duty at a mall in Katlehong on Monday.

In KwaZulu-Natal, the death toll has risen to at least 26 while over 180 people have been arrested in the violence that has engulfed the province.

This was revealed by Premier Sihle Zikalala in a media briefing on Tuesday.

“These were people that were killed during stampedes as protesters ran riot in areas including Umlazi, KwaMashu, Inanda, Phoenix, uMgungundlovu and northern KwaZulu-Natal,” he said.

Zuma release

The foundation’s call comes on the heels of advocate Dali Mpofu SC asking the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) to release Zuma from prison, pending the apex court’s finalisation of the former president’s rescission application.

Zuma wants the ConCourt to rescind its judgment, which sentenced him to 15 months in prison for contempt of court, after he failed to appear before the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, as ordered by the court.

Last week, the Pietermaritzburg High Court dismissed an urgent application to stay Zuma’s detention. Judge Jerome Mnguni ultimately found that the high court did not have the jurisdiction to interfere with an order handed down by the ConCourt.

Additional reporting by Bernadette Wicks